Treadmill or Road?

O.P.H

Are long runs on the road or grass more effective for fitness and weight loss than running on the treadmill?

Locked myself outa the house yesterday and was in my training gear so just went for a run to kill time until someone was in and dont know if it was my just in my head but felt more difficult than treadmill.

MrPain

I hear that running on the road is harder, not sure why. It puts more impact on your joints anyway.
Also in terms of burning calories aparently running on the beach is best. I imagine this is due to the sand moving under your feet reducing your effeciancy.

Dazd_N_Confusd

Running on the road is harder because you actually have to propel yourself forward while on a treadmill you're merely letting the ground pass underneath you.

You want something better? Try hill sprints. I don't think I really have to explain them.

j@utis

+1 for sprints.
I spend 30 mins doing my sprints, I burn around 300kcal in that time and I actually run for only 6-7 minutes I run on the grass (local football pitch) due to bad knee.

XDivaX

So it'd be better to go running on beach than treadmill in gym??

Dazd_N_Confusd

Ditch the treadmill. People spend 30 minutes on the treadmill thinking they're super fit yet are tired after a few laps of a football pitch. Don't be that person. Go running on the beach.

It's funny. I live in Portmarnock and go to the gym in Swords yet never go running on the perfectly good beach just down the road!

XDivaX

Dazd_N_Confusd wrote: »

Ditch the treadmill. People spend 30 minutes on the treadmill thinking they're super fit yet are tired after a few laps of a football pitch. Don't be that person. Go running on the beach.

It's funny. I live in Portmarnock and go to the gym in Swords yet never go running on the perfectly good beach just down the road!

Oh I'm f**ked then!! Have been going to gym a lot lately thinking I'm so good only to discover that it have been a waste of time!
The only reason I bother going to gym is that I need to lose weight and it is free at my college.

Used to go jogging on beach but then my jogging partner stopped and I don't have a car

corkcomp

its all about your heart rate and duration of activity. IMHO there wont be much difference between 30 minutes on the road / treadmill @ 160bpm

aFlabbyPanda

I find the treadmill is handy for speed/pace work or when its pissing rain but it doesnt compare to running outside. I trained for a marathon last year and did all my training on a treadmill (including the 20 milers) and was knackered after 15 miles when the day came and couldnt finish.

Now I'm doing all my longer runs (anything over 5 miles) on the road regardless of weather. And like you I find it much better, its just a pitty we don't have the climate for it.

Dazd_N_Confusd

XDivaX wrote: »

Oh I'm f**ked then!! Have been going to gym a lot lately thinking I'm so good only to discover that it have been a waste of time!
The only reason I bother going to gym is that I need to lose weight and it is free at my college.

Used to go jogging on beach but then my jogging partner stopped and I don't have a car

I wouldn't say it's a waste of time. If it's free make the most of it. Spin classes are great if your gym has them. Having other people cycle with you is a great motivation. I just don't like treadmills.

If you wanna lose weight then lifting weights would be a good idea. For some reason there's a misconception that people who lift weights are steroid using monsters. Personally I think squatting a few times a week would do more for controlling your weight then endless running.

jeff lebowski

If you set the incline on the treadmill to 1% or 1.5% the effort required for running on the treadmill is similar to road running.

Erkhan

Running on the road is simply more enjoyable. I used to do most my running on a treadmill (avg 35Km a week) but now I only run outdoors.

Treadmills can be tough You don't get a good airflow over Your body and so If You are running at any decent pace for a decent amount of time You will get uncomfortably warm. Also Your gait changes on a treadmill from how you would normally run, but I don't know if this is good or bad.

O.P.H

Cheers for imput.

I do full body weights sessions kinda every second day and do my cardio on days inbetween these sessions so I can only really do HIIT or long runs for cardio, cant really do circuit training as it would be too much.

So just wondering which is better to improve fitness (i.e. for soccer), HIIT or long runs. I know HIIT is better for losing fat but I would think long runs are better for overall fitness, especially if you run at a decent pace.

The Davestator

to make treadmill running more like road running, you need to have at least a 1% incline. the problem with this, is that it puts more pressure on your achilles tendon which can get injured if you only ever run uphill.
IMO, long runs outdoors and short interval stuff on a treadmill - works for me

Dazd_N_Confusd

O.P.H wrote: »

So just wondering which is better to improve fitness (i.e. for soccer), HIIT or long runs. I know HIIT is better for losing fat but I would think long runs are better for overall fitness, especially if you run at a decent pace.

Do both.

Aerobic endurance is obviously important but Soccer is a game where you perform repeated sprints for the whole game.

'Suicides' were always a good way of getting fit.

edges

BrianjG wrote: »

I find the treadmill is handy for speed/pace work or when its pissing rain but it doesnt compare to running outside. I trained for a marathon last year and did all my training on a treadmill (including the 20 milers) and was knackered after 15 miles when the day came and couldnt finish.

Now I'm doing all my longer runs (anything over 5 miles) on the road regardless of weather. And like you I find it much better, its just a pitty we don't have the climate for it.

Weather is a poor excuse for not training.

As for the treadmil, forget it.

it does not replicate running. You are trying to keep up with the belt coming at you on treadmill, whereas when running you are actually moving yourself along.
Running is a natural action.

Ideally stay off the concrete, instead use grass, sand or whatever "off road" surface you have is best.
Depending on your goals experiment with hill sprints, fartleks, distance etc
Most of all have fun with it.

Regards

Dave Hedges
www.wg-fit.com

Canis Lupus

Outside FTW and it's more interesting and I've said this before I find it best to run away from your start position in a straight line as opposed to doing laps in a nearby park. Use google earth to measure the distance because doing laps in a nearby park makes you more liable to get bored and just go home whereas if you're 5km away from your house you need to run that back regardless.

Beach running can be bad for your calves and achilles if you have issues here as more stress is placed on them. I also think I read somewhere on one of those running sites that the camber of the beach (the slope into the sea) can be bad for you as well.

O.P.H

It's much handier for me to run on the road than to go to a park or pitch etc. I've heard that once you have decent running shoes its not a problem running on the road.

Also about running with music. I'm of the opinion running with music is cheating, that is, if you are training for compedative sports. I find music gives you extra adreneline etc and gives you a boost when you are tired. A 10 mile run is much more difficult without music than doing it with music and developes more of a mental toughness I think. You have to deal with the hurt by yourself that relying on a thumping tune to get you going and this helps when you are knackered at the end of a match etc, you can deal with it better.

aFlabbyPanda

edges wrote: »

Weather is a poor excuse for not training.

Never said I didn't train

Sangre

BrianjG wrote: »

I find the treadmill is handy for speed/pace work or when its pissing rain but it doesnt compare to running outside. I trained for a marathon last year and did all my training on a treadmill (including the 20 milers) and was knackered after 15 miles when the day came and couldnt finish.

I'm sorry, but lol!

BigDuffman

Agreed, I also discovered the hard way. Was racking up some great times, then when I went out on the ground to do a run I was minutes over my average.

The treadmill does the running for you IMO. Your not pushing yourself to put in the leg work. As you can just set the treadmill to a high speed and you don't have a choice but to go with it. Where as when there is nothing but will power moving the grass beneath you its a different experience.

You've to push yourself and its a lot tougher mentally.

mandz

I've only taken up running in the past couple of months when a friend asked me to do the mini marathon with her. I was running on the treadmill and then last week I had my first attempt at running on the road. :eek: OH MY GOD I could not believe the difference!! I've never run before this (could ask me to walk any distance but run not a chance) and I'm finding it quite difficult to run outside. I'm slowly getting better. I'm just glad I discovered now how different it is rather than finding out on the day of the mini marathon.

token56

When I wasn't injured I did most of my running on the road, grass or sometimes trails, but after a few years of having never run on a treadmill before I tried it, simply because the gym was free in college. But I always found it easier to run outside than on the treadmill, I took it that maybe I wasn't used to it, but after plenty of running on them I could never hold the pace on it that I could hold if I was running outside. I think this is really just down to them being very different actions and working muscles in different ways. However I dont believe training on a treadmill is worthless, far from it, It can certainly help cardiovascularly, and will build the muscles somewhat but if you are planning on running a race etc on a road or a surface other than a treadmill you really need to get experience running on that surface before hand. Otherwise its very unlikely you will be able to run as fast as you did on the treadmill.

TheJones

Personally I've always considered a threadmill to be a glorified ''run-on-the-spot'', handy for getting the heart rate up but not much else. Also does anyone else find it slightly ironic to pay for gym membership only to spend a substantial amount of time on the threadmill looking out the window at people running outside for free?

Corholio

Treadmill getting a fair old bashing so far. Ive been using exercise bike for last 2 years or so and in terms of fitness and weight loss i've seen great results coupled with a good diet of course. I'm 6'0 and was 13 stone 2 at one stage but when i made the change and put in a summer of effort I was down to 11 stone 6, the lightest i've ever been. Unfortunately now due to a mixture of a few injuries and low motivation im back to 13 stone.

Due to a slight knee injury i find using the exercise bike uncomfortable due to the bending of the knee, i find running actually less uncomfortable. Was thinking of making use of a treadmill as I would be able to use it more than I would be able to go running.

Are treadmills really that bad? How are they for fat loss and fitness?